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Thursday, November 10, 2016

Carys knew what she wanted to be for Halloween early this year: after having a playdate with our neighbors, who had a Cleopatra costume, she was sold. Boom. She became incredibly interested in Ancient Egypt and wanted to learn all she could about Cleopatra and Egyptian life. Of course, it had to be THAT EXACT SAME costume, which took a bit of searching, but eventually I found it. I bought it in a size larger (the 7/8 instead of the 5/6) so that she could keep wearing it for a long time, and just hemmed it and sewed up the armholes to make it fit her.

Emmeline was also easy: we had Carys's baby bird costume from when she was 2, and I asked her if she wanted to wear it, and she said yes. Boom. Done. And I can say I hand-made her costume since, you know. I did. Even if it was two years ago.

The Halloween season started with Carys deciding she wanted to have a Halloween party for all her friends. She made an invitation on our whiteboard and set it in front of our house and was pretty devastated when no one showed up (what, you mean you need more than a whiteboard in front of a house to have a party?!?!).

So I went ahead and made her dream a reality and invited a few friends over to have a Halloween party, which was basically thrown completely by Carys. She picked out the favors, made the favor bags, decorated, decided on the activities, and made the guest list.

These favor bags make me want to die they're so cute.

Hank is the best and often the only boy his age in a gaggle of girls.

I advised everyone to bring an old t-shirt and a pumpkin to paint.

Then we decorated masks with stickers.

And then everyone went to bed because it went way later and was more of a real party than anyone expected, including myself - except for Carys. She knew what was up.

Every Halloween season we also go to Vala's Pumpkin Patch, a HUGE basically theme park that's an area favorite. My camera died right after we walked in but I was able to get the most important pics of the day - the pictures in front of the growth chart. I have them every year for both girls and LORD HELP ME IF I DON'T GET ONE EVERY SINGLE YEAR TIL THEY ARE 18.

Their uncle and aunt (Chris's sister and husband) came over to carve pumpkins and OMG they turned out so well.

The skull was carved on the white pumpkin, and Carys picked out the design for Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas for me to carve. The wolf was my sis-in-law's.

Carys designed and (mostly) carved the bat by herself.

Then...FINALLY according to Carys...it was Halloween!

As always, we started off with a stop at both great-grandmas' houses. The girls are so incredibly lucky to have 3/4 of their great-grandparents on my side alive - in their 70's, 80's, and 90's but alive and healthy and all still living independently and dude my grandpa still golfs and he's like 91. And if I have anything to do with it, they'll have this for another decade. IT COULD HAPPEN SHUT UP.

At my mom's parents' house, we meet up with my cousin's kids every year. Mariah, the oldest, was a zombie/Monster High cheerleader and played the part for the pictures. Their son was Owlet from PJ Masks and their daughter was the cutest Yoda ever to be seen.

Grandma and Grandpa with all some of their great-grandkids (plus Mariah's friend and my cousin's wife, who had to hold little Yoda to convince her to be in the picture).

Then we went to my dad's mom's house to get our yearly "bear chair" pictures (they've had this chair ever since I can remember and there are tons of pictures of little me in it and I've already told my grandma IT COMES TO ME WHEN SHE'S GONE). However, the girls are getting so big that you can't even see the "bear" portion of the bear chair.

Then we went home for the part that both girls had been waiting for - trick-or-treating! We met up with our neighbors and everyone went as a big group (Chris stayed at our house to give out candy, and I went with the dads of the neighborhood while the moms stayed to give out candy).

As we were heading out, this group of kiddos came by and Carys was ECSTATIC to hand them candy. You can see her bending down in her patronizing "awww, you're so cute!" pose.

We stopped by our amazing neighbor's - the girls basically treat their house like a second home.

And finally made our way to meet the other kids for trick-or-treating.

These neighbors put out a claw machine every year. So amazing!

We ended the night with a group picture at our house. So grateful for such a fun, friendly, awesome neighborhood!